Electronic messaging systems are systems wherein messages between two or more parties may be communicated and stored for later retrieval by the message recipient. The form of the communicated messages may be voice or data, the latter being virtually limitless and including facsimile, video and text. A typical scenario in such systems is that a call to the system subscriber is received by the system which, in response thereto, transmits a prestored message or announcement to the calling party. The calling party then has the opportunity to leave a message for the system subscriber.
One feature of electronic messaging systems, which encompass voice messaging systems, such as answering machines, as well as text and facsimile messaging systems, is that it is not required that the calling party and the system subscriber or called party both be present at the time the message is communicated. This feature can be a boon in certain situations and can also create problems in other situations. One such problem arises when a called party does not leave an adequate announcement message. For example, the most prevalent message left in voice messaging systems is not "customized" and is the same for any calling party. One commonly used message is one where the called party states that he or she is presently unavailable and will return any calls if the caller's name and telephone number are communicated to the messaging system. This often results in a significant amount of "telephone tag" wherein each caller repeatedly misses reaching the other and leaves his or her name and telephone number in the voice messaging system.
One solution to the above-referenced problem of telephone tag is to provide a personalized message for each of a number of different calling parties. Each of these messages is retrievable upon the entering of a password by the calling party. See, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,571,458, issued to Bond on Feb. 18, 1986. While this solution solves the problem, its shortcoming is that each calling party needs to remember their associated password and the password must be assigned to each calling party prior to leaving any message.